Barrister suspended after asking for sex

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A Melbourne barrister has had his practising certificate suspended for six months after he asked a client for sex during a pre-hearing conference in her home.

Paul Reynolds, 47, also asked the woman for a "kiss and cuddle" and to let him touch her breasts the night before he represented her in court, the Legal Profession Tribunal heard.

When the woman told Mr Reynolds she hoped her refusal to have sex would not affect the outcome of her case, he said it would not but he "would have been happier if we had had sex".

In an agreed statement of facts between the parties, after Mr Reynolds gave her a goodnight hug - which she initially did not object to - the woman told him she was "not interested" when he started to move his hand down her shoulder.

While Mr Reynolds did not lift the woman's clothing or touch her breasts, he asked to "just let me feel those puppies then, they're beautiful".

The three-member tribunal, chaired by former County Court judge Eugene Cullity, found Mr Reynolds guilty on March 30 of engaging in conduct discreditable to a barrister and likely to bring the legal profession into disrepute.

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On that charge, he was reprimanded, his practising certificate was suspended until October 1 and he was ordered to pay $13,000 costs.

Mr Reynolds, a lawyer of 23 years' experience including 15 as a barrister, was also found guilty of unsatisfactory conduct and reprimanded for contravening a practice rule of the Victorian Bar.

The Victorian Bar Inc charged Mr Reynolds after its ethics committee investigated the woman's complaints over incidents in a country town on May 8, 2003.

Mr Reynolds and his client drank alcohol over dinner and more back at her home, where he checked the police brief against her, conducted a mock cross-examination and looked at her character references.

He had tried to get accommodation in town, but nothing was available, and it was agreed he had not intended to stay or sleep with the woman.

She said in her letter of complaint she told Mr Reynolds after he asked for a kiss and cuddle it was inappropriate as he was her lawyer, but he replied: "Well, right now I'm just a man and you're just a woman."

At the tribunal hearing, Mr Reynolds offered an unconditional apology to the woman and the ethics committee through his barrister, Ross Ray, QC.

Mr Ray submitted that Mr Reynolds' actions were spontaneous after drinking and were opportunistic, inappropriate and of concern to the woman, but had not amounted to misconduct.

Mr Reynolds later told a solicitor he had "misread the situation and was stupid".

Mr Ray argued any period of suspension would devastate Mr Reynolds financially and emotionally.